


the unbearable temptation of jughead jones

by Smudge



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Even they don't know, Everyone being an idiot, F/M, Happy Valentine's Day!, are they jealous or idiots i don't know, betty and jughead going along for the ride, miscommunication on accident, veronica and archie scheming towards their own ends, 💞💞💞💞
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:21:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29441091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smudge/pseuds/Smudge
Summary: She’s still watching Veronica and Archie’s flirtatious display when he slips her shoe off and pushes his thumb into the arch of her foot, making her almost melt into her chair.Exhaling slowly, she looks up towards the ceiling when he starts running the pads of his fingers along the top of her foot.“You okay, Betty?” Veronica asks, the edge of faux-innocence now clear in her tone. “It’s not the food is it?”“No,” she answers, breathless. “I’m fine.”And she would be, if Jughead didn’t have her foot held tightly in his nimble fingers. She watches him take a bite of his food with his free hand, smirking at her when her fork slips out of her hand, hitting the plate with a loud clatter.His hand is halfway up her calf when she shivers.
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 27
Kudos: 194





	the unbearable temptation of jughead jones

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. Hey. How are you? 
> 
> This is another round of my quick and dirty Valentine's Day one shots because I often forget this is a holiday. It's not mushy, it's not gooey, it's chaos and I think that's always a good idea. 
> 
> Read on, lovelies!💜

“Jughead,” Veronica calls, running up behind him on the street and tugging on his arm. “I have the best idea.” 

“I doubt it,” he responds but stops anyway. “What is it?” 

“Okay, so Valentine’s Day—” 

“You mean the capitalist consumerism of whatever soulless marketing executives have manipulated lonely single people into thinking love is day?” 

She smiles and bounces on her toes. “Yes!” 

He feels a ripple of apprehension run through him at the gleam in her eye. 

“What’s your idea?” 

“So, you know how I’ve been trying to get a date with Archie Andrews, right?” 

Jughead groans. “You could just ask him, he’d say yes.”

“How do you know? You’ve never even met him,” she scoffs. “Besides, if I had done that, then I never would have secured us a double date with him and some girl he said he was hanging out with tomorrow night. What do you say to helping me make Archiekins jealous?” 

“Diabolical,” Jughead says with a laugh. “But no.” 

“Jughead,” Veronica pleads, her eyes getting wider, “please?” 

Furrowing his brow and twisting his lips, he pretends to think about it before smiling at her. “No.” 

“I will make it worth your while,” she promises, digging through her purse before holding up a card in front of him. “You know how you wanted to get a better deal for your next book, right? Well I met an agent at dinner party last week and I talked you up—” 

“What?” He reaches for the card, glaring at her when she slips it back into her bag. “Veronica—” 

“You do this for me, I give you the name, okay?” 

“What if I had plans for tomorrow?” 

Veronica laughs loudly. “Any other day and I might have believed you but not on Valentine’s Day, Jones.” 

“Fine.” He glares at her smirk. “But dinner only. If you want to take your act on the road, I’m out. Deal?” 

“Deal.” Veronica sticks her hand to shake his. “I’ll pick you up at seven, okay?” 

“I’m not wearing a tie,” he warns. 

She shrugs lightly. “As if I thought you would.” 

* * *

“Archie,” Betty says, annoyed, “I thought we were hanging out! We were going to watch movies, eat too much candy, and—” 

“I know,” he interrupts, contrite, “but then this girl—you should have seen her, Betty—asked me on a double date, and then I couldn’t say no.” 

“Wait.” Betty cocks her head at him. “A double date? So she’s got a boyfriend and you’re bringing me to what? Distract him?” 

“Could you?” he asks, almost begging. 

“No!” 

“It didn’t sound serious, I swear.” Archie kicks his feet up on her coffee table. “She said she had a last minute date and that we could join them if we wanted.” 

“Does she know we’re not dating?” 

Archie’s sheepish expression tells on him before he has the chance to admit it. 

“Seriously?” 

“Betty,” he starts, giving her the same look he’d given her when they were in high school and failed their biology project because he’d set the frog free before she’d had a chance to off the little sucker, “it’s just one night. I’ll owe you so big.” 

Narrowing her eyes at him, she knows she’s going to give in, but not before she makes him uncomfortable for a minute. 

Halfway into their staring contest, he caves, offering to put together the bookshelf he knows she’s been stacking books on. 

“Just the bookshelf?” 

He smiles at her. “If you flirt with her date, I’ll put together anything you want.”

“And?” 

“I’ll watch your cat the next time you go out of town?” 

“Yes. You will.” Betty curls up on the sofa, kicking his thighs with her feet. “So, how do you know this girl anyway?” 

Crossing his ankles and leaning further back into the cushions, he reaches for the remote. “Do you remember when Val needed a date to some book event?” 

“Yeah.” 

“She was there for some author friend of hers—” 

“An author? What’s his name?” 

Arche shrugs. “We weren’t there long enough to meet him.” 

“And you didn’t ask her out? You?” Betty laughs. “Really?” 

“Shut up.” Archie scrolls through the movie options. “I keep running into her, though.” 

“And now we’re going to go on a double date with her boyfriend—” 

“Maybe boyfriend,” Archie interjects, picking some action movie. “Don’t forget to look hot, okay? As hot as you can.” 

“You’re so gross.” She kicks his legs again. “I can’t believe I’m letting you use me for bait.” 

* * *

Jughead’s sitting at his desk when he hears Veronica knock twice before storming in. He’d followed her directions to the letter: button up shirt, decent jeans, and no shoes that look like he’d crashed his motorcycle in them. 

“Jughead!” she calls, her heels clicking across the hardwood floor. “You better be ready.” 

“I’m ready,” he mutters, typing the last of his sentence before pulling the piece of paper out of the typewriter. 

“You know,” she says from behind him, tapping her toes, “laptops have keyboards too.” 

“This is authentic,” he grumbles. 

“It’s really just pretentious but whatever makes that writer brain work, I guess.” She flicks the back of his head. “We have to go.” 

He stretches his neck and arms, popping the joints of his fingers before standing up. “Fine.” 

When he turns around, Veronica is eyeing his place shrewdly. “It’s like you never even had that semi-drunken hookup the other day.”

Rolling his eyes, he walks past her to grab his keys and wallet off the table near the front door. 

“Are you ready?” 

“Oh,” Veronica says, with wide eyes. “I get it. She didn’t leave her number, did she?” 

“Veronica.”

“She wasn’t even here when you woke up, was she?” 

He gestures to the door. “Can we go?” 

She straightens the skirt of her dress before smoothing down her hair and giving him a nod. “Do I look okay?” 

“You look great,” he reassures her. “Let’s go steal Archie from whatever poor girl who has no idea what you’re capable of.”

“Thank you.” Throwing her shoulders back, she walks out of the door and into the hallway, waiting for him to lock up behind her. “Remember we’re supposed to be on a date. So, if I grab your hand, don’t jump and act offended.”

He sighs. “That card you’re holding as ransom better be worth its weight in gold.”

* * *

“Veronica,” he hisses, staring at the front of the restaurant. “Really?” 

“I had to come up with something last minute,” she defends. “And I needed to use connections to get this reservation.” 

“The food here is so tiny, though,” he whines, getting out of the car. Holding out a hand to help Veronica, he almost pouts at how hungry he’s going to be later.

“Do not make the face,” she warns. “You’re going to be dashing and intelligent. I need Archie to feel competitive.” 

Inhaling deeply, he gives her a curt nod. “Dashing. Intelligent. I can do that. But you better give me that card as soon as this is all over.” 

“You got it.” She grips his hand tightly. “Now, be a good fake date and don’t forget your manners.” 

He sighs, letting her drag him through the doors and past the hostess stand, dreading every moment of what was about to happen. 

“Archie!” Veronica says brightly, “I’m so glad you made it.” 

“Hi, Ronnie,” Archie says, standing up and waiting for her to sit. 

Jughead follows, biting back a sigh. 

“This is Jughead,” Veronica says primly, kicking him lightly to get him to look up. 

“Nice to meet you, man,” Archie says amiably, holding out his hand to shake. Jughead grips it and already feels slightly guilty that he’s about to spend the entire evening lying to this guy and his girlfriend in the name of getting a better book deal. 

“Where’s your date?” Veronica inquires innocently. Too innocently. “Did she not make it?” 

Her tone is syrupy sweet and Jughead shifts his chair slightly away from her. He knows that tone. It rings warning bells in his head the way the rattle of a rattlesnake should in everyone. 

“She just went to the bathroom. She’ll be right back,” Archie says, picking up his menu. 

Veronica wilts and Jughead pats her on the shoulder. He’s about to try and say something nicer than usual to her to make her feel better when her whole body stiffens. 

_“Fuck,”_ she whispers. 

He looks up to follow her line of sight and he feels his stomach fall somewhere in the direction of the floor. He takes in the long legs leading up to the short skirt of a tight pink strapless dress, the golden skin and hair, the pretty pink lips and the curve of her hips, but most of all: her eyes. 

Eyes he already _knows._

_He held her up against the wall as he bit down on the juncture of her neck. She was fumbling for the button on his jeans, trying to unzip them before his grip on her thighs slipped._

_“Bed?” He panted against her sweetly scented skin. It was a combination of something vaguely floral and the heady smells of the bar he’d met her in._

_“Please,” she moaned, her hand wrapping tightly around his cock, almost bringing him to his knees._

_Letting go so he could walk, she held onto him by the shoulders and nipped at his jawline until she found his lips. Pulling his lower lip between her teeth, she sucked just hard enough to the edge of pain, her fingernails digging into his skin._

Veronica pulls him out of the memory by digging her own nails into his hand. “Jughead.” 

_“Fuck,”_ he mutters, shaking out his hand and meeting Veronica’s eyes. “Sorry.” 

“This is Betty,” Archie says without the slightest idea that his girlfriend had been in someone else’s bed just days ago. 

“Nice to meet you, Betty,” Veronica says, a too-bright-to-be-real smile plastered across her face. “I’m Veronica. I can’t believe we’ve never crossed paths before.” 

“Me either,” Betty replies softly, taking her seat. Her eyes flick back and forth between him and Veronica. 

“This is Jughead,” Veronica tells her, kicking him under the table again to stop being rude and silent. 

* * *

“Hi,” she says to him, swallowing nervously. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“You too.” He sends her a tight smile. “How long have you and Archie been dating?” 

She wants to throw up. She just slept with this guy a couple days ago and not only does he have a girlfriend, he thinks she’s got a boyfriend. 

Betty opens her mouth to answer when Archie starts speaking before she can. 

“Not too long,” he answers, smiling at her. “It’s pretty new.” 

“Like, within the last two days new?” Jughead asks abruptly and Betty’s eyes widen in shock. 

Betty sits up straighter in her chair. “How long have you two been together?” 

Trying to ignore the way Veronica’s hand reaches for Jughead’s, she pulls the napkin back onto her lap and picks at the hem. 

“Oh, you know, it’s new too,” Veronica responds vaguely. “I just couldn’t resist him after we started talking. He’s _so_ smart.” 

Betty nods politely. “That’s always a good thing.” 

“How did you meet Archie, Betty?” Veronica asks, her eyes glinting in the lights of the restaurant. 

“We’ve known each other for forever.” Betty prays a waiter comes to put her out of her misery soon. “Just one of those things.” 

“Hmm,” Veronica hums and scoots closer to Jughead. “Sounds sweet.” 

Betty shifts uncomfortably. 

How was she supposed to sit there and have dinner, being used as bait while having already been caught by someone else’s boyfriend?

“Really sweet,” Archie adds, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her against him. 

Unable to meet Jughead’s eye, she stares down at the table in front of her until the waiter comes and she sags in relief, ordering a large glass of wine first before whatever random pasta she saw first on the menu. 

It’s not until she’s taking a gulp of her wine, trying to keep her eyes on the wall behind Veronica that she catches sight of Jughead staring at her darkly, running his fingers across his lips. 

Swallowing heavily, she tries, and fails, not to think about the last time she’d been near those fingers. 

_“You like that?” he murmured against her thigh, slipping a second finger into her. “I think you do.”_

_She hardly had a moment to groan before his mouth was back on her clit, sucking on it. Her hands reached for his hair, twisting her fists into it as her legs started to shake. His free hand found its way against her abdomen and pushed down, keeping her in place._

_“That’s it,” he urged, speeding up his movements. “I want to feel it, Betty. That’s my girl.”_

She’s shaken out of her reverie by the plate of food set in front of her. She thanks the waiter politely, glad for another distraction, while trying to discreetly rub away the heat that had built up between her thighs. 

* * *

Jughead can feel Veronica’s stare burning against the side of his face, almost yelling at him to do what they agreed upon. 

He’s supposed to be flirting. With Betty. With the girl he’s already slept with who apparently had a boyfriend. 

And who now thinks that Veronica is his girlfriend. 

He’s never leaving the house on Valentine’s Day again. 

“So, Betty,” he starts, trying not to think about the way Betty is currently licking her fork, “what do you do?” 

Her big eyes widen as she looks up at him. She takes another drink of wine. 

“I’m an FBI trainee,” she answers politely, dabbing at the edge of her mouth with the napkin she’d pulled up off of her lap. 

A lap he remembers quite well. 

“And you?” she asks, fidgeting with her pasta. 

He begins to cut his steak, his too small, too expensive steak. “I’m an author.” 

Archie perks up. “The author friend you were at that thing for, Ronnie?” 

Veronica almost chokes on her risotto. “Yeah. This is him.” 

“Did you get together after that?” Archie questions, looking between them. 

Nodding, Veronica takes a drink of her own wine. “It was just one of those things!” 

He can feel Betty glaring at him for a moment and feels the sting of guilt before he remembers she’s dating Archie. Meeting her eyes, he glares back when he feels Veronica’s fingernails digging into his leg. 

_“Ouch,”_ he hisses, reaching under the table to pry her off of him. 

He sees Betty track the movements of his hand and she looks away when Veronica leans further into him. 

“You are supposed to be flirting!” she whispers menacingly to him, pretending to lay her head on his shoulder for a moment. 

“Get your claws out of my leg,” he whispers back with a fake smile, almost wincing when he sees Archie offer Betty a bite of his food. 

She sets her chin on his shoulder and tightens her grip on him. “Then do what we agreed on.” 

“Fine,” he says between gritted teeth and she lets go, sitting back into her own chair. 

He takes another bite of his food, pretending that the sight of Archie’s hand casually resting on Betty’s shoulder isn’t driving him crazy. “What do you do, Archie?” 

“I run a boxing gym,” he answers with a casual shrug. 

_Oh god,_ Jughead thinks. _I’m going to be beaten to death by a boxer for sleeping with his girlfriend._

“And you, Veronica?” Betty inquires sweetly. 

“I work in jewelry,” Veronica replies vaguely. “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, after all.” 

Betty’s light laugh in response sends a shiver up his spine. He remembers that laugh. 

_The sound of her giggling into her drink on the barstool next to him bolstered his confidence and he slid his hand up further along her thigh, until he met the edge of something very lacy. He pressed his fingers against her and she bit her lip, her eyes becoming half-lidded in the low light of the bar._

_“We can go to mine if you want,” he offered with a smile when her breath hitched and she turned further into him._

_“Yeah.” She nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go.”_

“An FBI trainee? That’s impressive,” he says, tilting his head at her with a smile. The same one he’d gotten her attention the night he’d met her. 

“Is it?” Betty’s voice is sweet. “I think being a published author is impressive.”

“Isn’t it, though?” Veronica adds. “He’s _so_ talented.” 

* * *

“It certainly seems that way,” Betty agrees easily, trying not to think about what she knows he’s talented at. 

Archie tries to feed her again and she kicks him under the table, glaring at him from the corner of her eye. He retreats with a pout and she has to fight the urge to roll her eyes. 

When this is over, she is going to kill Archie, she decides. Let him flirt with Veronica on his own instead of using her for bait. 

She’d already baited herself to Jughead days earlier, then slipped out of his apartment before the sun was up, the sting of a hangover and the fear of making it awkward causing her to run before she’d thought it through all the way. 

Betty had hoped he’d call, having left her phone number on a post-it on the book sitting on his nightstand. 

He hadn’t though, and now she knows why. 

She’s swirling the pasta around her fork aimlessly when Archie wraps an arm around her again, and she almost leans away from him when she remembers she’s supposed to be his date for the night. 

The tight lipped smile she sends him doesn’t seem to register because he’s staring at Veronica who is leaning into Jughead while staring at Archie. 

Oh.

_Oh._

She meets Jughead’s eyes across the table who is taking in the sight of Archie giving her the rough affection of a toddler with a ragdoll. 

Widening her eyes, she looks down, keeping them on the table. Maybe they were having problems then, if they were both clearly in the process of sabotaging their relationship. 

She stretches her leg out under the table, the tension in her calf begging for relief. Kicking Jughead’s foot on accident, she’s about to apologize when he catches her ankle between his feet, trapping her. 

Casually and slowly reaching under the table, he wraps his fingers around her heel, pulling her foot up into his lap. 

Her breathing speeds up. 

She’s still watching Veronica and Archie’s flirtatious display when he slips her shoe off and pushes his thumb into the arch of her foot, making her almost melt into her chair. 

Exhaling slowly, she looks up towards the ceiling when he starts running the pads of his fingers along the top of her foot. 

“You okay, Betty?” Veronica asks, the edge of faux-innocence now clear in her tone. “It’s not the food is it?” 

“No,” she answers, breathless. “I’m fine.” 

And she would be, if Jughead didn’t have her foot held tightly in his nimble fingers. She watches him take a bite of his food with his free hand, smirking at her when her fork slips out of her hand, hitting the plate with a loud clatter. 

His hand is halfway up her calf when she shivers. Trying not to moan when he resumes the soft, soothing pressure of his fingers against the bottom of her foot, she loses herself thinking about the night they shared together. 

_“Your legs are gorgeous,” he said, kneeling between her thighs, her right leg sitting on his shoulder. He kissed the arch of her foot. Then her ankle._

_Then he slid into her with a groan, and she watched the moonlight bounce off his shoulders. He dragged her hips towards him and she moaned with the movement. Her hands were above her head, reaching for something to hold onto when she wrapped her left leg around his back to keep him close._

_He leaned back, settling on his knees and kissed her calf once more before moving it off of his shoulder so he could pull her into his lap, both of her legs hanging onto his hips as he thrust up into her._

Realizing where she’s at and what she’s doing, she sits up and tries to maneuver her foot out of his grasp but he holds tight. Taking in his features, she’s surprised he’s rolling his eyes at Veronica in-between staring daggers at Archie. 

She can’t pinpoint their dynamic but whatever it is, Jughead doesn’t seem to be doing more than humoring her. It doesn’t do much to make her feel better and she looks at Archie but he’s not paying her any attention, instead focusing on whatever Veronica is saying. 

And glaring at Jughead intermittently. 

* * *

He can feel her eyes on him, confused and annoyed while warring with her obvious arousal. 

Jughead wonders what she even sees in this Archie guy. It wasn’t serious. He'd gathered _that_ by the slip-up Archie had made a few minutes earlier when Veronica had asked him about what he’d gotten Betty for Valentine’s Day. 

Archie had laughed and said they had a tradition of exchanging the worst candy they could find for years, since they were kids but then had coughed and changed the subject. 

Jughead had seen the light in Veronica’s eyes brighten as she turned up the charm and he’d decided to have a little fun with Betty. 

Especially since she didn’t even seem to hear Archie’s mistake. 

With a smirk, he settles comfortably into his seat and kicks his legs out, relaxing while still massaging the arch of her foot, not letting her pull away from him. Her eyes keep closing, her head tilting back and her food ignored. 

He’d be lying if the idea of torturing her a little for not, at minimum, leaving her phone number didn’t appeal to him. 

She might ghost him again, but he’d take that risk to feel the heat of her surrounding him at least one more time. 

He takes a drink and licks his lips. Betty’s eyes follow the motion. Ignoring Veronica and Archie’s newest line of conversation, he picks up his fork and brings it to his mouth, watching Betty watch him through her lashes. 

Blinking at him for a second, Betty pushes some of the food on her plate before picking it up and bringing it to her mouth, letting her tongue wrap around the tines of the fork before pulling it out slowly, the edge of it dragging across her plump lower lip. 

Inhaling sharply, he tries and fails to ignore how much she’s affecting him. Being immune to her seems like an insurmountable goal, especially with the thoughts flitting through his head every time he steals a glance at her mouth. 

_“Is this what you want?” she asked, pushing him back onto the bed. Peppering kisses across his chest, she moved lower to his stomach, to his hip bones, to the aching cock begging for her attention. “Is this what you like?”_

_“Yeah,” he said, and twisted her hair into his fist, holding it out of his way so he could see her pretty eyes when she wrapped her pretty lips around him. There was no hope of keeping the low groan in when she pulled back, the pressure of her sucking on him making his head fall back in pleasure. “Just like that.”_

He can’t keep his eyes off of her, watching her run her tongue back and forth along her lips when he hears Veronica screech at him. 

“I can’t believe you, Jughead!” 

“What?” he’s barely responsive now that Betty is pressing her toes against the zipper of his jeans, the edges of her lips curling when she hears his incoherency. “What now?” 

“We’re on a date and you’re flirting with Archie’s girlfriend!” Veronica throws her napkin dramatically on the table, her voice getting the attention of the nearby tables. 

Jughead rolls his eyes. “Can it, Veronica. The only person who hasn’t figured out this farce yet is Archie there.” 

“Wait, what?” Archie asks, confused. 

Holding up his finger to have Archie give him a second, he bends down to get Betty’s shoe before sitting back up with it in his hand and gestures between Veronica and himself. 

“We’re not dating. I’m doing her a favor and you’re not dating Betty. If you are, you’re going to be really mad that I slept with her a couple of days ago—” 

“That’s the hookup that didn’t leave her number?” Veronica exclaims, her eyes flicking between Betty and Jughead. 

“Wait, I left my number, I thought you weren’t interested,” Betty says, her eyebrows furrowing. 

“You slept with Betty?” Archie asks, still dumbfounded. “But—” 

“Don’t think too hard, Arch, just enjoy Veronica’s company,” Betty says soothingly, patting him on the shoulder. 

Jughead stares at Betty. “What do you mean, you left your number?” 

“I left it on a post-it on one of the books by your bed,” she says in a quiet voice. “When you didn’t call, I assumed you weren’t interested.” 

He thinks back to that morning and groans. “I knocked all the books off my nightstand when I was trying to shut the alarm off.” 

“I keep telling you to clean up your place,” Veronica says smugly. “This is a really good reason why.” 

Shaking his head, he stands up with Betty’s shoe in his hand and walks around the table to her chair. 

“Why does he have Betty’s shoe?” Archie asks Veronica, still catching up. 

“I’ll explain it to you later, Archiekins,” Veronica promises, flagging down a waiter. “Let’s have dessert first, okay?” 

Kneeling down in front of her, he slips her shoe on her foot and stands, holding out a hand to her. “You want to go to mine?” 

“Yeah,” she nods. “Yeah, let’s go.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sup? Hey. Well, I had fun writing that so I hope you had fun reading it. 
> 
> I'm not much for Valentine's in general so I always try and bring some fun on this day for the people who are looking for it. 
> 
> This is...chaotic, I know. But! Sometimes, we all need a little chaos in our lives and I, for one, think we all need it lately. But fun, chaos. Not the kind that make me sigh every time I get on my tumblr. 
> 
> Just know that I love you guys, I love bughead, and I'll always be willing to share my candy with you all. Besos!
> 
> As always, you can [tumble](https://thetaoofbetty.tumblr.com/) with me if you want.


End file.
